


Spark

by bluestargirl6 (pressdbtwnpages)



Category: Rent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-01
Updated: 2010-04-01
Packaged: 2017-10-08 14:06:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pressdbtwnpages/pseuds/bluestargirl6
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>These people, Benny's friends, they're all going to burn out in a blaze of glory.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Spark

  
Watching the faces of his friends as they stand around Angel's grave, Benny gets it. Alison wasn't what got him ostracized. Even if she'd been a bohemian princess content to move into the loft with him after their wedding, Benny wouldn't have had a place there anymore.

It isn't _Alison_ his friends have a problem with, it's his having a wife. Maybe dating a Westport Gray hadn't done him any favors, but Benny was out the minute engagement, a proposal, entered his mind.

These people, his friends, they're all going to burn out in a blaze of glory.

Roger, Roger's been dying in degrees since Benny met him. Roger is a banked fire, flaring at a poker's prod and burning brightly for a few minutes until the ashes coat him again. Eventually pokers will stop prodding and Roger will be suffocated in his own isolation.

Maureen, Maureen the drama queen. A shooting star who aims too high and is destined to crash and burn. She is a momentary flash in a sky full of more stable, more reliable celestial bodies.

Mimi's a candle, short and sweet, creating a nice glow and scalding wax. She'll drown herself in her own passion.

Angel, though Benny didn't know him well, is a match. His usefulness is short-lived, but the not-unpleasant odor of his memory will linger long after her life has been extinguished.

Collins has always sort of reminded Benny of a lantern somehow with the teaching thing, and the philosophy, being a guide. The light is hot and a little dangerous, though Benny's never quite understood how it's created. One of these days, Collins' lantern will tip, catch on hay and send the whole barn up in a magnificent blaze.

Joanne is a flashlight. One of these objects not like the others. Joanne reminds Benny most of himself, but she's not cut out for the white-picket fence life. She'll last, light shining brightly until all at once it dies, matter of fact.

Mark, Mark stands a chance. He could get out, live the happy suburban life if he wanted to, drive a mini-van, relegate the camera to taping soccer games. But Benny knows Mark well after years of friendship, knows Mark won't get out, won't give up the freezing Alphabet City loft and suffering for his art. Mark thinks he's suffered too much already to get out. Mark's friends will set him ablaze.

And Benny has an estate in Connecticut. Benny has a white-picket life. He escaped, wanted to, was biding his time on a grand adventure until his life kicked in. Benny will watch at a distance as his friends blaze too bright and die out. Benny will attend their funerals and pay their debts and no one will ever give him a backwards glance. Benny is fluorescent lighting, ugly and depressing and utterly utilitarian, but practical in the end.


End file.
